Almost five years of sustained campaigning, investigations, and advocacy, have led to a big win for nature and wildlife on the banks of the Daly River in the Northern Territory.
The owners of Claravale Farm and Station, Top End Pastoral Company, have made history by referring their land clearing plans for assessment under federal nature laws.
Our focus on the properties began in 2021, when we were first alerted to bulldozing at Claravale Farm – where native vegetation was cleared almost to the river's edge without a permit.
Environment Centre NT decided to spotlight this critical habitat on the banks of the Daly River, with legal representation from Environmental Justice Australia.
The Daly’s nature at risk
Threatened species live at Claravale, including northern quolls, pig-nosed turtles, partridge pigeons, water monitors, Gouldian finches, freshwater sawfish and red goshawks.
Claravale is also home to one of only six maternity roosts for ghost bats in the entire Northern Territory. This is where the tiny bats raise their pups in limestone caves surrounded by sweeping orange plains and savanna woodland.
Destruction on pastoral estates
From the start, we knew that these issues extend far beyond the gates of Claravale. Pastoral estates make up 45% of the Northern Territory's land mass, and destruction is occurring at an alarming scale, largely out of sight and out of mind.
Between 2003 and 2025, more than 274,400 hectares of native vegetation were approved for bulldozing in the Territory – this horrifying situation has been enabled by a system that prioritises pastoral and farming interests over environmental protection.
The NT government's Pastoral Land Board, which oversees land clearing approvals, has failed to protect our natural heritage.
Claravale Station on the banks of the Daly River.
Our Claravale campaign gains momentum
After Environment Centre NT released satellite images showing native vegetation had allegedly been bulldozed at Claravale Farm without permits, the NT government launched legal action against Top End Pastoral Company. This would have been the Territory's first land-clearing prosecution – a landmark case.
However, in March 2025, Environment Minister Joshua Burgoyne settled the dispute outside of court, ending the prosecution before it could set a precedent.
But we didn't give up, and we kept up our calls for Federal intervention.
Now, Environment Minister Murray Watt will consider the impact of plans to clear more than 4,500 hectares of native vegetation for crops like cotton and sorghum on Claravale Station.
You can read our detailed submission calling on the Minister to assess the impacts this deforestation will have on threatened species, to ensure that significant impacts are avoided and further extinctions prevented.
Minister must do more
While this is a moment worth celebrating, we're worried our new federal nature laws won't stop mass clearing of the Territory's savanna and wildlife unless they're properly enforced.
Claravale is a deforestation test for the Minister following the passing of our new nature laws.
It's horrifying that more than 30,000 hectares of vegetation can be approved for bulldozing in the Northern Territory over the last year without even being considered by Australia's Federal Environment Minister.
That’s why we need your support to keep up our fight to protect nature in the Daly River.
Sign the petition to Stop Bulldozing Country, volunteer, or chip in to protect the Territory's nature.